A secret unlike any other
by Oz-Freak09
Summary: We all know Katie Scarlett O'Hara loves a secret. What happens when Scarlett is withholding a sceret of her own? If anyone found out it would bring shame to her family and name. Who does she TRULY love? What is her secret?


**So, let me begin by saying that if you don't like femslash couples, then right now would be the best time to turn around and leave. I'd run fast, especially over this particular story; I have taken and paired two ladies from one of the most epic romances of all time, Gone With The Wind, and made it my own, well kind of, and I must warn that it get's pretty hot and heavy so if that alone bothers you than you better bolt in a dead sprint...Now that I have clarified that this is a hot and heavy femslash between two of the lovely leading ladies from GWTW, I hope you enjoy it and appreciate it for what it's worth if you do decide to venture into this romance, and if you think that you won't enjoy it because femslash in GWTW is unheard of, give it a chance, you might end up shedding a tear, or even better, start shipping for Mellie and Scarlett. I worked extremely hard on this so if your going to criticize anything about it, don't cut me down too much, but tell me honestly how you feel about the couple. Thanks =)**

**P.S-Hope you enjoy Laura, here's a shout out to you for getting me inspired enough to start on this haha =D**

* * *

><p>Mellie smiled at me; I could see in her face that it was a genuine smile. A smile that's fake, why you can tell that right off, but it's hardly ever that I get a smile that's truly meant to make me happy. That's how Mellie was, so naive, but so wise to the world around her; I didn't see what made her treat everyone around her like they were gold or something, maybe it was just me. She was a walking contradiction if I ever saw one. But I'm not, what Rhett would say, a shinning saint. I recall the first time I ever met Miss Melanie Hamilton at Twelve Oaks, well the time I had met her face to face that is; I had seen pictures of her before, she was quit good looking, but not the kind of good looking that men stop to stare at, but to me she was very beautiful, I had never told anyone that before, but I always thought about it. I had blatantly told Pa that I thought of her as a mealy-mouth ninny, and that I hated her. I had only said it because I was quite jealous, at the time I mean, over her having Ashley. I couldn't understand, or well, rather didn't want to understand what a beautiful person she really was; but I wanted to know more about her, not any gossip about her, I don't mean that way, why I doubt there'd even be any about her. But I wanted to know so much more about her, and I <em>was <em>going to find out…Maybe I was so jealous at the time, not of her having Ashley…but of Ashley having _her…_

The air was hot and heavy, it was summer time, and it was hot enough to make you sweat but not so blistering hot that you couldn't be out on the porch, summer time is my favorite season. I recall the faint smell of magnolias whispering through the wind, I was so aware of every little sense I could possibly feel. The Tarleton twins had been buzzing around me all day like a pair of two old horse flies. I tried to be engaging in their conversation; all they were talking about anyway was the war. I was so bored with the talk of war I could scream. All I wanted to do was go wait for Pa to come back from Twelve Oaks to give me some gossip about what was going on and who was bringing who to the BBQ. I was growing tired of hearing the twins' voices, but then they promised to tell me a secret if I danced with them and only them at the ball after the BBQ, I just couldn't let a good gossip story pass me by so I promised, but I had lied. The twins went on to say that Melanie Hamilton, I repeated her name in my head, was visiting from Atlanta at Twelve Oaks and that she was going to marry Ashley. The Wilkes's always married their cousins, a family tradition I just couldn't understand. I felt my face get flushed, and a fire grew in my stomach. I just couldn't believe it, they were to be married? I didn't want to believe it. I got up from the porch and stormed off, not even looking back at the twins, "It can't be true" I muttered. The twins yelled after me but I took off running, I thought maybe if I just could leave it wouldn't be true. I'd have done anything for it not to be true. Mamie then started yelling, but it only made me run faster, I didn't even hear a word of what she was saying, I didn't care. She started yelling even louder, "No," I shouted, "I'm going to wait for Pa to come home form the Wilkes's!" Pa would know for sure if they were to be married, I had to know... But I already knew it was true, I just didn't want to believe it. I can make myself believe anything, but even I couldn't make myself believe this. I had run so far away from the house trying to escape everything and every body that I had made my way out into the shaded area where a lot of our magnolia and oak trees are planted, near the small pond where some swans were drifting on the ripples.

I leaned up against a tree and sighed and watched the swans swim together and listened to the silence around me. I've heard it say that when a person is in silence, it becomes deafening when their alone with their thoughts, and it was sure true. I waited for Pa for over half an hour, then I saw him galloping through the fields on his prized white stallion. He scared me to death on that old horse, I hated to see him jumping fences and thickets, especially at his age, but he never bothered to listen to me when I told him about it. He came to a stop and hoped off the horse, I ran to greet him, playing to be happy to see him, but inside I was nervous, I couldn't really tell why, I was just as nervous as could be. Maybe I was so nervous because I knew what he was going to tell me. He walked up to me, I started fixing his scarf making small talk until I could get to my burning question, the one I already had the answer to. I looped my arm around his and began to walk with him "How are they all over at Twelve Oaks?" I began. "The Wilkes's? Oh just as you'd expect with the BBQ tomorrow and talking nothing but war." Pa answered striding along with me, mentioning that old war again. "Oh, bother the war. Was there anyone else there?" Pa suddenly said, "Oh, their cousin Melanie Hamilton from Atlanta and her brother, Charles." I said her name out loud this time. I liked to say her name, but I suddenly thought of her and Ashley together, married. That's when I blurted out, "She's a pale-faced, mealy-mouthed ninny…" and then I went on to say that I hated her, when I didn't even mean it. Pa and I kept talking about Melanie and Ashley, the conversation lead into Pa acting concerned when I had said so many things about them both. He asked me if Ashley had been trifling with me, Pa even asked me if Ashley had asked _me _to marry him. I answered a blatant, "No." Pa straitened his posture up "No, nor will he. I have it in strictest confidence from John Wilkes this afternoon…Ashley is going to marry Miss Melanie. It will be announced tomorrow night at the ball." I felt the heat rush to my face again, and that awful fire in the pit of my stomach, like butterflies but a bad feeling of them. I had my answer, I had known it all along but I had a glimmer of hope it was just a rumor, now I had just heard the fact of it. I took a sudden breath and began to run away from Pa, "I don't believe it!" I had to run again, run away from my thoughts; I didn't want to hear anymore of it. He ran after me, yelling at me to stop. He caught up with my and grabbed my arm, asking me in a harsh frantic tone, "What are you about? Have you made a spectacle of yourself running about after a man who's not in love with you when you might have any man in the county?" I didn't want any man in the county! I didn't even know if I wanted a man at all! I didn't say it but I sure thought it. "I haven't been running after him, it's just a, it's just a surprise that's all." I answered and turned away for Pa. He followed me, "Now don't be jerking your chin at me. If Ashley wanted to marry you, it would be with misgivings I'd say yes. I want my girl to be happy, you'd not be happy with him." I admired Pa for saying that to me, I know he wants me to be happy, I realize that everyday, but he doesn't know what I _truly _want, I don't believe anyone in the county knows what I truly want and if they even heard a gossipy rumor about it, it'd bring shame to our whole family. Pa kept talking, I tried to listen. "What difference does it make who you marry? So long as he's a southerner and thinks like you." That remark didn't make me too happy; I shook my head in reply. "And when I'm gone, I'll leave Tara to you…" I had gotten flustered in the midst of our conversation and made a statement that made Pa turn to me and say in a low voice, "You mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for…worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts." He shook his cane at me, "Oh Pa, you talk like an Irishman." "It's proud I am that I'm Irish. And don't you be forgetting, Missy, that your half Irish too. And to anyone with a drop or Irish blood in them, why the land they live on is like their Mother. Oh, butyou're just a child. It'll come to you, this love of the land. There's no getting away from it if you're Irish."

Pa put his arm on my shoulder and we looked out at the Tara plantation together as the sun set behind the house, the house Pa had built form the ground up. I knew what it meant to him, I did, it's just that I had so many other emotions pulsing through my body that I couldn't grasp it at the moment. I had heard every word Pa had just said to me, and I understood it. But there was something inside of me that was hurting, I couldn't tell you what it meant, or what exactly it was. I didn't want to have these feelings, but there was a lot more to come. Especially after I met Melanie face to face at Twelve Oaks; I was nervous about her being there now, and I didn't now why, and now that I knew that Ashley was going to ask her to marry him in front of everyone at the ball, it made me feel crushed almost, like there was something bad about to happen and I couldn't change it, it felt like I was losing something that wasn't even mine! I was more nervous to see Melanie than anyone that would be at the BBQ, no other woman had made me this nervous in all my life, nor any other man for that matter. And I knew exactly why Melanie made me nervous…


End file.
